Clark documentary series to screen ‘Powerbroker’

The new documentary film series, Worcester Community Cinema, will continue at 7 p.m. Feb. 28 in Room 218, Jefferson Hall, Clark University, with a free screening of “The Powerbroker: Whitney Young’s Fight for Human Rights.”

Whitney M. Young Jr. was one of the most celebrated and controversial leaders of the civil rights era.

Community Cinema is a national documentary screening series presented by “Independent Lens,” an Emmy Award-winning documentary series on PBS, and ITVS Community Cinema, a national “community engagement” program of Independent Television Service and “Independent Lens.”

Worcester Community Cinema is presented locally by N-CITE, which describes itself as “a media collective based in Worcester that works with urban youth to develop counterstories to disrupt the dominant narratives.”

The current Worcester series began in January and will include four other recent documentaries.

Eric DeMeulenaere of N-CITE said that a panel will lead a discussion with the audience after each screening, looking at issues addressed in the films from a local perspective. Young was executive director of the National Urban League and president of the National Association of Social Workers until his untimely death from a heart attack at the age of 49 in 1971.

Members of the panel following the screening include the Rev. Jose Encarnacion, Gloria Hall and Joyce McNickles.

The other films in the series are also free and will all be shown in Room 218, Jefferson Academic Center.

The rest of the schedule is as follows: 7 p.m. March 28, “Wonder Women! Untold Story of American Superheroines”; 7 p.m. April 25, “The Island President”; 7 p.m. May 30, “The Revolutionary Optimists”; 7 p.m. June 27, “Love Free or Die.”